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Constant hunger after 4 months of being primal?

12-20-2012, 09:16 AM

Hello all! So, I have been primal for 4 months now. At first, things went swimmingly, but now my weight lost has stalled and I am constantly hungry. I eat tell I am satisfied and don't try to limit my calories. It seems that every 2 or so hours I have to eat again no matter how much I eat in the prior meal. Here is some additional information:

I eat 6-9 servings of vegetables a day.
My carb intake is from between 60-90 grams a day
I mostly eat beef, pork, and eggs for my meats.
I am consistently in minor ketosis (I use testing strips)
I have tried carb refeeds (300+ good carbs), but they fail to alleviate the problem
I get 6-8 hours of low level aerobic activity a week
I do a sprint workout every week
I have IBS
I take adderall and celexa
I supplement with digestive enzymes, COQ10, vitamin D, fish oil, and magnesium.
Despite attempts to increase sleep quality, I consistently wake up during the night and sleep poorly

Any thoughts, opinions, or solution would be greatly appreciated! This is very disheartening :/

Comment

Did you lose at least 10-20% of body weight and prior to that maintained the weight for a long time (a few years)? If so, your body may be pushing you back towards isostasis, the old weight. You might have to accept a small weight re-gain and no further loss for a few weeks to let the things settle down.

You might want to explore your satiation mechanism, such as adding a lot more fat and dialing back carbs or increasing protein by protein dominant foods like tuna, pollock, turkey breast, egg whites (or both). Or trying plain foods with high satiation index, like plain boiled potato or beans. Check which meats satiate you the best. Salmon >>eggs and beef>> pork for me for example.
check the volumes of food you are getting. See if adding bulk vegetable or turning salads into soups helps
Do not be afraid eating every 2 or 3 hours if the hunger is persistent, but eat very slowly, and stretch every meal for eat least 30 min.
Try drinking bone broth or cleansing lemonade (1/2 lemon, sea salt to taste, chili pepper to tatse)
before going to bed have a couple of tablespoons of nut butter or a handful of nuts.

Comment

I would say my fat intake is pretty high. For example yesterday, my breakfast was 3 pieces of bacon, 3 pastured eggs, and 2 cups of sauteed vegetables with lots of clarified grass fed butter on top. I also had a huge salad with 2tbsp of olive oil, 15 olives, and an avocado. Finally I had 1lb of ground beef patties. As a side not I never drain my grease and just put it on my vegetables. That is a pretty standard day for me except I always include 2 or 3 snacks usually baked broccoli, kale chips, or squash accompanied by a hard boiled egg/jerky.

Comment

have you considered eating more? depending on whether you are male or female, your size, your age, etc.. and your body composition and weight loss goals, you may just need to eat more. if you're a 6'5", 250lb man with 25 more lbs to lose, that's different than a 5'2" 250lb woman with 125lbs to lose.

Occam already got his razor back, didn't hear about that? Or OP, have you considered resetting your hunger switch ie eating less or dare I say it, intermittent fasting, or outright fasting? Most people, CW people, eat too much already & have not tried IFing ever or tried it enough. A few months eating & living this PB way is still new for most metabolism imo. I went through "the hungries" several months into PB, fasting incrementally helped me get to a different, newer, better place in my estimation. Eating one's way out of one's problems or the stillness of autophagy, hm... Maybe try the latter & see what happens.

Comment

Hello all! So, I have been primal for 4 months now. At first, things went swimmingly, but now my weight lost has stalled and I am constantly hungry. I eat tell I am satisfied and don't try to limit my calories. It seems that every 2 or so hours I have to eat again no matter how much I eat in the prior meal. Here is some additional information:

I eat 6-9 servings of vegetables a day.
My carb intake is from between 60-90 grams a day
I mostly eat beef, pork, and eggs for my meats.
I am consistently in minor ketosis (I use testing strips)
I have tried carb refeeds (300+ good carbs), but they fail to alleviate the problem
I get 6-8 hours of low level aerobic activity a week
I do a sprint workout every week
I have IBS
I take adderall and celexa
I supplement with digestive enzymes, COQ10, vitamin D, fish oil, and magnesium.
Despite attempts to increase sleep quality, I consistently wake up during the night and sleep poorly

Any thoughts, opinions, or solution would be greatly appreciated! This is very disheartening :/

If you have IBS you might want to look at reducing your FODMAPS and getting more probiotics. But be careful with probiotics as they can cause greater symptoms in people with IBS. I have fructose malabsorption (cause of IBS for many) and when I eat too high in FODMAPS I feel really stuffed and hungry at the same time. Too much starch can also be an issue.